Windows test game: Mines

We use Mines, from Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection, as a lightweight first Windows compatibility test. It is a genuine Windows GUI executable, 353,864 bytes (about 346 KiB), version 20260923.616da16. The collection is MIT licensed; the original upstream notice is preserved in test-games/licenses/mines-LICENCE.txt and copied alongside the installed game.

npm run test-game:setup
npm run test-game:status
npm run test-game:play

The setup command installs the standalone executable under ~/.local/share/vessel/test-games/mines/20260923.616da16/, verifies its exact SHA-256 and size, and installs the upstream license. No administrator access is required. Game binaries and generated data are stored outside the repository.

Upstream publishes a rotating download URL. The checked-in manifest pins the bytes observed over official HTTPS, not an independently signed publisher checksum. If upstream replaces the download, installation deliberately fails until the new version/hash is reviewed. Existing verified installations are reused. The official source archive URL is recorded in test-games/mines.json. The initial setup also downloaded that version’s source archive to puzzles-source.tar.gz beside the executable for local source debugging; its checksum is recorded in the manifest. Repeat setup only downloads the executable.

The play command uses UMU and the installed GE-Proton11-11-x86_64 by default. It assigns a dedicated ~/.local/share/vessel/prefixes/mines-test Wine prefix and writes UMU/Proton logs to ~/.local/state/vessel/logs/mines/. XDG data/state directory overrides are respected. Close the game normally to return its exit status to the launching terminal.

Custom runtime and prefix overrides:

VESSEL_PROTON_PATH=/absolute/path/to/Proton \
  VESSEL_UMU_PATH=/absolute/path/to/umu-run \
  VESSEL_TEST_PREFIX=/absolute/path/to/test-prefix \
  npm run test-game:play

Optional game arguments can be passed after --. For example, a saved game can be supplied as an absolute path when testing save/load behavior.

What this establishes

The initial manual check launched the Windows executable through UMU/GE-Proton in a 240×285 window. Its board rendered correctly, and a targeted mouse click revealed numbered cells. Closing the window returned exit code 0. This validates a small Win32 window, input, and normal process exit. It does not exercise DirectX/Vulkan graphics, trainer injection, mod deployment, or Skyrim compatibility. Save/load and restart behavior should be checked as those launcher features are developed.

The npm scripts remain useful as a developer fixture. Vessel’s desktop library also discovers this installation and can launch it from a game card, using its own per-game prefix and library logs. See the library guide.